Table of Contents

Overview

Battlestar Galactica is a science-fiction drama series written by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Michael Rymer; it is named after a previous show of the same name, which aired in 1978, and is considered a re-imagining of the original series, as opposed to a remake.

Episodes

Battlestar Galactica aired on SyFy (then known as SciFi) for four seasons from 2005 to 2009; the final season was divided into seasons 4 and 4.5, the former airing in 2008 and the latter in 2009. It was preceded by a mini-series that aired in 2003, and two movies (Razor from 2007 and The Plan from 2009) were released as alternative perspectives onto the series.

Plot Overview

The series begins with the destruction of Armistice Station, which was erected to ease communication between The 12 Colonies of Kobol and their enemy, The Cylons, who have been out of reach for 50 years since their revolution against humanity.

Soon after this, the Battlestar Galactica, a half-century old warship, is being retired. As the ceremony's participants are heading back to their respective planets, the Cylons coordinate a surprise nuclear strike against all 12 of the colonies and nearly wipe out all of humanity, except for those who managed to escape their planets or were in transit between planets. Gaius Baltar, a scientist and researcher on the planet Caprica, is partially responsible for these attacks, as he unwittingly gave a Cylon agent access to Caprica's defense mainframe in exchange for sexual favors. He escapes from Caprica when Helo, a pilot from the Galactica, gives him his spot on a ship bound for Galactica.

As most of the presidential cabinet is killed in the attacks, the highest ranking member is Secretary of Education Laura Roslin, and therefore she quickly is sworn into office as the newest President of the Colonies.

The Battlestar Galactica, being the last known surviving battlestar, rounds up all jump-capable ships that can be found, and travels into the uncharted parts of space in search of the mythical 13th colony of Kobol, known as Earth. Unbeknownst to the general populace, of which there are fewer than 50,000 left, Commander Adama fabricated his information on the legendary planet, in an attempt to give his people a glimmer of hope in the face of destruction and apocalypse.

Throughout the first two seasons, it is revealed that there are Cylon sleeper agents who appear human aboard some of the ships in the fleet, which causes much unrest amongst the quickly dwindling population. A second battlestar named Pegasus is also discovered, and after high tensions between the two ships, Admiral Helena Cain of the Pegasus is assassinated by an escaped Cylon spy, which gives Commander Adama, now Admiral Adama, command of two vessels.

After Laura Roslin's term ends, there is a presidential election with the main contenders being herself, and Gaius Baltar. The election is rigged by Roslin, and she keeps her position even though Baltar won the popular vote. After Admiral Adama discovers that the election was rigged, Roslin requests a recount and Baltar is sworn in as the new president; his first act is to colonize a newly discovered habitable planet, which is promptly named New Caprica.

A year later, it turns out that the colonization effort is a disaster, with extremely low supplies of medicine and a witless president in charge of it all; and to top it off, the Cylons finally locate the escaped humans, and occupy the planet as the skeleton fleet orbiting around New Caprica jumps away. Several months later, a rescue is coordinated and the surviving humans escape from the planet and return to deep space; the Battlestar Pegasus is lost during the battle.

Lieutenant Kara Thrace and Colonel Tigh, the Galactica's top pilot and her Executive Officer, both suffer from severe PTSD as a result of this incident, and become wildly irrational and incite unrest among the Galactica's crew, but are quickly put in their places by the Admiral.

Eventually, Kara Thrace is killed in a storm, but returns in the middle of a large battle against the Cylon fleet, with information about the location of Earth, which contradicts Laura Roslin's information. This poses a problem, but Admiral Adama ends up giving her the benefit of the doubt and gives her command of a small ship so that she can find it's whereabouts. In addition to this, four crew members discover that they are, in fact, Cylons, but of a very unique kind.

Finally, Earth is found, but to everybody's horror, it appears that a nuclear apocalypse devastated the planet many millenia ago, in the same fashion that the 12 Colonies were destroyed.

Hope seems to be lost for all, and as the ships in the fleet degrade and the population grows weary, the hybrid daughter of a Cylon (who is accepted within the fleet) and a human is kidnapped and brought to the Cylon Colony, a massive construction hidden in a field of asteroids where the Cylons' main populace resides. A final, desperate attempt to rescue her is made by the Galactica and volunteers from her crew.

After Hera (the hybrid child) is located and brought to the bridge of Galactica, there is a standstill in which it appears that there may after all be peace between the Cylons and Humans, with the condition that some important information is transferred from Galactica to The Colony. This goes awry, however, when a jealous Galen Tyrol kills one of the information holders in a rage of anger, and all the hostile Cylons aboard Galactica are killed and The Colony is bombarded with nuclear missiles.

The Galactica manages to jump away at the last minute as Kara Thrace inputs unknown coordinates into the jump computer, and ends up in orbit around a blue planet which is untouched and beautiful; a new Earth ready for colonization. It is decided in the end, however, that there will be no city, and that all the humans left will be spread across the globe without technology, so as to start anew.

It is revealed that this is our Earth, some tens of thousands of years ago, and that Kara Thrace was, in fact, an angel who was sent to guide humanity to a new world.